National Republican., 1887-11-30
The India wheat and Silver.


EDITOR NATIONAL REPUBLICAN Prof.
j. II. Dodge may be correct in the conclu-
sions arrived at, that we have small ground
to fear any permanent competition In
wheat from India. There will be little
satisfaction to American farmers in such
assurances after they are bankrupted by
the unfair competition they have been
forced TO stand in recent years. Fair CON
petition, American energy and resources
can master. But with the subsidy we are
so blind as to permit to exist at all In the
depreciation OF silver, the Indian importer
has an advantage of about 30 per cent.
We discount their cheap labor in on,
labor saving machinery and In our appi.
ances for handling and carrying to market
as well as our comparative nearness t,
western Europe.
With silver at par with coin India could
not meet us In European markets.
IL is true India ought not to spare tha
wheat her teeming millions need; he
writers show that. But she his to pay T.
something for the expenses OF British rule
She has no gold. She must pay in cotton
or wheat, cultivated as in the olden days
without modern machinery.
England collects by the sale OF CONNER
eial drafts on Calcutta, payable, of course
In silver, and silver has the same purchas
ing power in the Orient as 1t possessed be
lUlc. lUlb lb bDOWu DY UuB pre-
pared tables of Ivan Il. Michalls. Other
western nations bindly consented to follow
England in demonetizing that primal money
metal.
That action has brought the present dis
tress upon the western nations, chiefly felt
by the class most directly brought into
competition with Asiatic labor, the
farmers, not alone OF our country, but those
of all the western nations.
America has tho nnwpr tn brpaE this rom.
bination. Why will not our farmers look
into this real vital question which Is affect
ing so disastrously their interests?
We produce more silver than any other
nation, and then with blind faulty consent
to let II become the foot ball Of tie council
OF india in London, to regulate the price
they are to pay us for wheat and cotton,
Tor the price is now regulated entirely by
the price at which that body sells its drafts
on Calcutta.
Are we to submit to this till that great
class of Americas farmers who had the
courage, and enterprise, and faith to buy
land on installments, trusting, as such men
always had done since America was first
peopled, In their strength and industry as
applied to fertile land to pay them out,
are all ruined, as vast numbers OF them are
already?
Let any observer 60 among the farmers
OF the great wheat, corn, and cotton pro-
ducing states and they can verify this.
Lands have deprecated to an extent that
Is alarming, and simply because they pro-
duce do income cultivated for those great
American staples.
Two Of the best farmers Of this great ecu
trail county of Virginia told the writer that
they would not take the best farm In that
county and keep 1t up and pay taxes for
what they could raise on It. Lands nave
sold for less than one.third what they cost
since the war.
Measured by their income that is more
than they are worth.
A letter from central New y Jrk tells the
same story there.
How long is this to go on?
II appears In letter fro the ''gardsn
state" published in a Rochester IN. Y }
paper, Farm LDc, that by carefully pre-
pared figures of the Illinois Board OF Agri-
culture, that the farmers Of that state have
actually lost S52, 100000 producing corn In
tho last four ears.
Again, whence is 10 be the ever. Is
Wall street to rule the roOst and dictate
our financial policy?
The bankers at their late convention iD
Chicago recommended that Congress enact
law to susp, nd the coinage OF silver till ln
International agreement be adopted fixing
the ratio Of silver 10 gold.
Mr.. Secretary Manning In his last report
from the treasury recommended the same
heroic remedy.
Wait till capital has gotten everything
possessed by the great middle class of en-
ployers In Europe and Atnerlca--and then
give them chance again-by restoring
the peoples money, silver, to It's place.
Mr.. Editor, please refer to page Of that
great work, 1.-THE report of the United
States monetary (silver by title) commits
sion"-a work spoken Of In Chambers's En-
cyclopedia as "the ablest compendium OF
monetary science, facts, and theories ever
You will see this: "The avowed reason
In Europe for the demonetization of silver
was the apprehension of the creditor classes
that unless one Of the money metals was
deprived Of Its monetary functions that
money would become too cheap"
In other words, that the product Of In
dustry would become too dear.
Further on In the same report, on page
6l, Prof. Laveleye, addressing the Belgium
monetary commission, said
=. Debtors, and among them the state, have
the right to pay. In gold or silver and this
right cannot be taken away without distdib
prejudice OF debtors to the extent OF perhaps
one-halt, certainly of one third
Toincrease all debts at a blow is measure
50 violent, 50 revolutionary, that cannot ne
that the chambers will vote It..
Belgium did not, but stood by France in
maintaining the Joint standard.
Many able men believe that had they not
closed their mints to silver In alarm at the
action of Germany In demonetizlng silver
(Which we Low know was a political blow
at her rival, France), that they could have
maintained the parity with coin. Thus by
said policy have we seen the debtors robbed,
their debts doubled, for II takes twice as
much OF the average product of industry to
pay debt as 1t did before this ill-starred
policy prevailed.
The great bondho!ders OF Europe may
control the policies of governments there.
Control labor by controlling the volume
OF money and fixing its value, as suggested
in the "lIoward circuar.n
Shall they Go SO In free America? II so,
then America is to be free no longer. Are
we to ignore the experience of thirty cen
tuiies to suit the whims of men who would
grasp the world II they could and coin 1t
1t into goldY Our country can restore sill yer
TO parity with cCin. IL need not buy an
ounce. With open mints can any man be-
lieve silver would not at once be fixed at
par9
Was not paper money made equal to gold
by the act OF resumption Of specie payment
IN lsNY 10 was not necessary TO take 1t to
the treasury.
DID not England, by law, hold gold at par
with coin when its production was fourfold
greater than silver?
This destruction OF values is the cause of
the labor troubles here and abroad. 1t is
largely the cause Of Ireana's distress. A
prospering people are not seditious. THIS
should be an era of unbOunded prosperity,
instead Of one veTglng on the ragged edge
of despair II would be such but for the
evil work done by designing men,
Americans, rs a general thing, prefer
their excellent paper money II 1t can be
kept convertible into specie at will,
Is not silver as good In the vaults to se-
cure redemption as goldY II not, then wbyY
II is as much the peoples money as when
nnhlna rode rnnnh shnl nunr the nnmmnnILu